ENVELOPE

Similar to the artists of “mail art” from the 1960’s and 1970’s, Batia Shani also exploits the open and democratic space
available to anyone who purchases an envelop and a stamp and follows therules of addressing the envelope.
She embroiders and paints and add collage on the envelopes, and send them to imaginary people and fabricated addresses throughout the world,
while making sure to include the address of the sender.
In this way, she ensures that the envelopes will be retured to her, after the fake address is not located.
Taking advantage of one of the popular and inexpensive services that are still availabler to us in a digital and privatized world,
Batia Shani creates world- embracing artistic conduct.
So far, viewers of her work have been postmen and mail clerks, people whose job is to examine the envelopes attentively,
sort them and dispatch them to their destination.
The mail clerks stamp the envelopes with “return to sender” or “there is no such street in Haifa” , and thus add another visual element, albeit bureaucratic, to the collection of elements on the envelopes.